This is a translation of a foreign article, so there may be mistranslations.
PlayStation believes Xbox is completely finished, and now sees Steam as its new main rival
The console landscape has changed rapidly in recent years, and PlayStation has not been immune to it. Even so, the most significant change is unquestionably Xbox’s trajectory. Repeating what once happened to SEGA, Xbox is now focusing squarely on its role as a game developer and publisher.
It is true that Xbox still has its own console, but sales have fallen considerably and Microsoft is clearly focusing on game content itself, and on extending those games to more platforms.
That is why it is only natural that PlayStation no longer regards Xbox as a rival. What is interesting, though, is that PlayStation has begun treating Steam as a competitor — specifically since the announcement of the 'Steam Machine', which still has no official release date or price.
PlayStation no longer sees Xbox as a rival
This came from Mike Ybarra, a prominent industry executive and former president of Blizzard Entertainment, which Xbox now owns. He very likely holds important information that we do not.
Specifically, he wrote on his X (formerly Twitter) account: "They (PlayStation) see Valve as the new main competitor. Valve will enter the living room and the console market through the Steam Machine and probably third-party variants running SteamOS. Valve rarely makes mistakes, and it is smart of PlayStation to have noticed."
Many users replied pointing out the problems Steam would face in this area, but Mike Ybarra countered by citing Steam’s vast installed user base and active user numbers, along with a refund policy that is among the best in the industry.
Meanwhile, many users are connecting this with news that emerged last week that 'PlayStation may stop releasing games on PC'. If true, it would be a genuinely drastic shift in PlayStation’s strategy given what we know so far.
An explanation for the move
If the upcoming Steam Machine makes Steam a competitor, then continuing to release games on PC amounts to supplying your own games to a rival platform — at least if the current strategy stays as it is.
There is one way to avoid this, and it matches what was reported earlier: specifically, that PlayStation has been working to build its own PC store. That would prevent its games from running on SteamOS-based Steam Machines (SteamOS being a Linux-based operating system), since Linux-based systems can struggle a great deal to run certain programs optimised for Windows.
Even so, according to various reports, PlayStation appears to have judged this route unworkable. Those reports state directly that PlayStation will stop releasing games on PC, except for certain multiplayer titles that need to sustain a large player base over time.
In any case, all of this is currently based on reports and leaks. The sources are undoubtedly credible, but there has been no official announcement, so it is best to wait until PlayStation issues a statement. That said, the first consequences of this decision may start to show even before then, in the form of fewer PlayStation games arriving on PC.
▶ Original source: https://www.avpasion.com/playstation-xbox-nueva-competidora-steam/
